


Echoes off the walls

by MagicInMe123



Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-08-22 01:03:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8267026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicInMe123/pseuds/MagicInMe123
Summary: In which something is very wrong with Camila and it takes Lauren entirely too long to notice.





	1. Chapter 1

In the interest of fairness, Lauren Jauregui can admit that she can be pretty oblivious. Sometimes she gets distracted and completely misses her cue on stage, other times she starts reading a book in the living room of their tour bus and doesn't even realize when her band mates join her.

It wasn't really a surprise to Lauren when she looked up from her chair one afternoon and noticed Dinah and Camila engaged in what appeared to be a serious discussion about the validity of the Cuban's claim that eating more bananas 'is actually improving her vocal range.' The oldest girl smiled fondly at the two and was about to refocus her attention on her phone call with her younger sister when something caught her eye. Lauren narrowed her eyes as she focused in on her girlfriend seated just a few feet away; there was something very off about the way Camila was sitting. The older girl knew that her girlfriend was quirky and clumsy, both things that would account for her having odd posture but upon further scrutiny of her face, it seemed to Lauren like her girlfriend was sort of grimacing as she spoke.

"Lauren? Can you still hear me okay?" Taylor's voice rang in the singer's ears.

Shaking herself out of her analytical trance, the older girl cleared her throat "Sorry Tay, I think I'm starting to lose you, I'm only catching every other word."

"It's okay, just text me whenever. I miss you," Taylor answered easily.

"Of course, I'll call you tomorrow before the show," Lauren promised, disconnecting the call. The raven haired girl felt slightly guilty about brushing off her sister but now her mind was hyper focused on her Cuban girlfriend. Now that she was thinking about it, she had been acting weird for the past week or so. Replaying the events in her head, Lauren realized that maybe her odd seating posture was linked to the fact that Camila hadn't let Lauren hold her at all recently. In fact pretty much anytime the older girl had gone to show physical affection her girlfriend seemed uncomfortable and gave her an excuse to leave the room.

The more Lauren mentally analyzed her girlfriend's recent behavior, the more worried she became. None of Camila's behaviors were dramatically altered but enough little things were building up that Lauren felt like a terrible girlfriend for not noticing the small red flags as they came.

Knowing that it was incredibly difficult to get Camila to open up to her before she was ready to, Lauren was sure that pulling her away from her conversation with Dinah to confront her would only result in a fight.

Slowly the singer pulled her headphones out of her ears and wrapped them around the cell phone she was still clutching in her hands. She stood from her chair and silently made her way back to the bunk area where she knew Normani and Ally would be.

And just as she thought, she found her friends sitting on opposite sides of Normani's bunk both on their phones.

"Hey Laur," Ally greeted happily, her bright smile already lessening the tension in the youngest girl's body. Normani glanced up and smiled softly at her best friend before returning her attention to her texts.

"Are you guys busy right now?" Lauren asked.

Both girls immediately looked up from their phones to meet concerned bright green eyes.

"What's up?" Normani asked, crossing her legs and patting the now open spot on the bed for Lauren to sit.

She glanced up carefully to make sure Camila was still engaged in her conversation with the Tongan. Satisfied with her girlfriend's attention completely preoccupied she met two pairs of brown eyes.

"Have you guys noticed anything...I don't know, off with Camila lately?"

Ally's face twisted into a frown. Both girls seemed to heavily contemplate the question before nodding slowly.

"Actually, now that you mention it she kinda has been acting weird ever since after that show in Detroit," Ally said.

"Detroit?" Lauren asked, confused "What happened after the show in Detroit?"

The Miami native had met up with Keana and a group of her friends that night who happened to be in town for a modeling shoot and was unaware that her girlfriend had done anything other than go back to their hotel room and sleep after the show.

Understanding passed through Normani's eyes "I forgot you'd left with Keana by then. Jason really laid into Mila after the show. Like he was really upset with her for forgetting a few of the steps in the BO$$ choreography."

Lauren's brow furrowed "We hardly ever perform that song anymore, I'm pretty sure I forgot some of it too."

Ally nodded in agreement "I honestly didn't think it was much of anything, I guess Jason was having a bad day and took it out on her. We didn't really hear that much because he took her into the dressing rooms but he said something about 'private lessons' and 'catching her up.'

"Honestly I thought it would be blown over by the next day but I guess he was serious and Mila seems like she took the criticism pretty hard," Normani grimaced.

Lauren could feel her heart rate begin to speed up. Their choreographer had yelled at her girlfriend without her there to defend her? And more importantly, why was she just hearing about this now? Why didn't Camila say anything to her?

The green eyed girl was torn between calling her girlfriend away and demanding answers to all her questions and not wanting to cause the Cuban beauty get upset with her if she wasn't ready to talk.

"Why do you ask Lo?" Ally probed gently.

Again Lauren shook herself out of her thoughts and returned her attention to her bandmates.

"I guess I just noticed that she's been a little distant lately," Lauren hesitated, unsure if it was a good idea for her to bring up the possible grimace and lack of intimacy between them. On the one hand, the more information she gave them, the more they could help explain but Lauren also didn't want to over share details of their relationship she was sure Camila would prefer to keep between them.

"Just talk to her, if anything's really wrong I'm sure she'd come to you. You've been pretty busy yourself, maybe she doesn't want to bother you," The chocolate skinned girl mused.

Lauren nodded to herself, mentally acknowledging that her friends were right and maybe she had been a bit unavailable to Camila. She'd been either sleeping, on the phone with friends from Miami or with all four of the girls for as long as she could recall. When was the last time she and Camila had spent time together awake? Come to think of it, Lauren couldn't even really recall their most recent meaningful conversation.

Deciding to rectify the situation immediately, she quickly thanked her band mates and headed back to the lounge to free the younger Cuban from her and Dinah's heated conversation.

"Walz there's no way to prove it. That's like me saying I only grew two inches taller in 7th grade because I wore pink shoes," Dinah argued.

"And I'm saying there's no way to prove that those pink shoes aren't the reason you grew two inches. Sometimes you just know Chee Chee," Camila disagreed.

The blonde opened her mouth, prepared to rebuttal but the argument died on her lips as she saw Lauren approaching them.

"Lauser, thank God you're finally here to talk some sense into this one."

The older Cuban laughed "I'm not sure I want to get involved in this clearly highly important and logical argument. However, I would like to borrow my girlfriend."

Camila was still sitting with odd posture, as if she was trying to ease tension in her ribcage, Lauren noted. Her face remained impassive but she had yet to meet her girlfriend's bright green eyes and the raven haired girl couldn't help but think that was intentional.

"Sure thing, I was about to go eat anyway. But y'all don't have time for funny business, we'll be to the hotel in half an hour," Dinah warned, throwing both girls a playful smirk before heading into the kitchen on the opposite end of the bus.

Somewhat frustrated with their level of privacy, Lauren returned her piercing gaze to her girlfriend, whose chocolate orbs were now drilling back into her own.

"Hi Camz," Her raspy voice echoed softly, sending a shiver down the spine of the younger girl.

"Hey Lo," Camila greeted easily, rising awkwardly from her seat on the bar stools they kept near their breakfast table.

Purely out of habit, the older girl's arms snaked around Camila's waist as she gently pulled her against her chest, wanting to feel the closeness she'd been deprived of for much too long now.

"I've missed you," she murmured.

Unprepared for the sudden contact, the shorter girl flinched mildly causing her girlfriend to stiffen.

"I've missed you too. How's Taylor doing?" she asked, eager to distract from her reaction.

"Taylor's fine, I'm more interested in how you're doing," she countered, raising a questioning eyebrow.

Camila's eyebrows furrowed in faux confusion "I'm doing fine. What's this about?"

"You know what this is about Camz," Lauren claimed "I've barley seen in the past week, maybe a little longer. You don't let me hold you before we go to sleep, I can't remember our last proper kiss and you've been acting, I don't know, off somehow. What's going on with you?"

In hindsight, Lauren recognizes that spilling a list of issues to start the conversation was a bad call. Especially considering a lot of the problems she shared equal responsibility for. In the moment, all she'd wanted to do was provide Camila with examples of how different she was acting but she honestly should have known better than to bombard her girlfriend like that.

Camila, not at all liking the accusatory tone in Lauren's clearly concerned voice immediately stepped out of her girlfriend's embrace, regardless of how much she too had missed having closeness with the green eyed beauty.

"Are you serious? So everything is my fault then?" Camila said incredulously

Lauren immediately began shaking her head "I didn't mean-"

"First of all, we spend hours together in the studio and on stage every day," Camila cut her off, unwilling to allow Lauren to backpedal just yet.

"And what's the first thing you do when we stop recording? You're immediately glued to your phone." The younger girl snapped

Guilt settled in and Lauren could feel her heart slowly crack at how hurt Camila clearly was that she'd ignored her so much recently. Camila never, ever snapped at anyone but when she did, it was just to bury feelings of hurt. The young Cuban avoided feeling vulnerable at all costs but usually she'd make an exception for the other Miami native.

"I guess I have been on my phone more than usual lately, I'm sorry. We just need to carve out time for us to just be alone together. Not recording, not with the girls and definitely with no phones," Lauren whispered, trying to keep their argument private from the eavesdropping ears of their bandmates.

Camila bit her lip harshly, as if she were having an internal debate about what to say next. The taller girl could tell she was holding something back. Her eyes broke contact from Lauren's and she began to play with her fingers to calm herself.

Seeing some of the tension leave Camila's shoulders at her words, Lauren smiled and gestured towards the couch. Lauren gracefully plopped down first and gently tugged Camila with her, directing the younger girl so her feet were on the opposite end and her head rested comfortable in Lauren's lap. Running a hand through her girlfriend's soft chocolate locks, the older Cuban couldn't help but notice the grimaces Camila had attempted to hide while laying down.

"Are you okay Camz?" she asked softly.

Camila's face immediately became blank, leaving just a soft smile in place.

"I'm fine Laur, just a little sore is all," she assured her, reaching around slowly and turning on the remote to their lounge television.

"We'll be there in 20 minutes ladies, get your stuff ready," the driver called out. 

Sighing, the older girl had no choice but to accept her girlfriend's answer for the time being. Sore? Sore from what? The older girl knew she had to be missing something and tonight she was determined to find out what. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The tour bus pulled up to the back entrance of their hotel to prevent a mob of fans from attacking the girls. One by one, Norami, Ally and Dinah emerged from the back, overnight suitcases in one hand and cellphones in the other.

Ally was the first to notice the peaceful moment they were interrupting. Camila was still lying with her head in Lauren's lap and her eyes shut softly making her look younger and innocent. While the tv was playing, Camila was the sole focus of the Miami native's attention; she was slowly running her fingers through the other girl's chocolate locks and gently massaging her scalp with her long fingernails.

The short blonde didn't want to break up their moment, seeing how she and Normani knew Lauren was worried about her girlfriend, but as designated 'big sister/mom' she knew the responsibility would fall to her.

"Laur we've got to go check in," Ally approached the couple speaking softly.

Lauren's eyes snapped up to meet warm brown ones, as if she'd been unaware that the other had even entered the room.

"Come on, it's time to go babe," Lauren whispered softly, earning a disgruntled groan from the younger girl. 

 

The couple made their way back to their bunks to retrieve their bags and promptly exited the bus. Their manager regrouped them in the lobby and sorted the hotel room keys, as per usual Dinah and Normani in one room, Ally in her own and Camila and Lauren in the next. Occasionally if one girl particularly wanted space, they could of course ask for the single room but generally it was reserved for Ally, who always wanted to facetime with Troy.

After handing out the keys and giving each of the girls their itinerary for the next 3 days, the girls dispersed in different directions; Dinah and Normani to the hotel restaurant to get food, Ally outside to let her parents know she made it safely to their next location and Lauren and Camila to their hotel room to drop off their bags.

"I was thinking we could go for a swim tonight, since tomorrow is a day off and everything," Lauren suggested while they were in the elevator. The older girl noticed that Camila still seemed to be favoring her right foot and kept her arm wrapped protectively around herself, as if trying to prevent her torso from getting jostled around but not wanting to push, she didn't comment.

"I uh, can't tonight," Camila stuttered nervously.

Lauren raised her eyebrows questioningly, had she not just suggested that they needed to spend more time together?

"It's not what you think, I definitely would love to spend time with you and only you tonight," Camila continued quickly.

For a moment, Lauren swooned at the knowledge that Camila knew her so well and was able to read her face so easily. Being best friends before dating definitely had its advantages; sometimes it was as if Camila knew her thoughts before she'd even had them.

"Then what's the problem?" Lauren asked, perhaps a bit more aggressively than she'd meant to. She reached out to pull Camila closer, subconsciously wanting to feel more connected to her girlfriend but when she recalled the odd body language and clear discomfort on the girl's face, she restrained herself.

"I have other obligations tonight," the smaller girl answered softly, keeping her eyes locked on the elevator buttons.

The light ding from the elevator momentarily distracted both girls as they shuffled out of the small room and into the spacious hallway.

"What the hell do you mean 'other obligations' I have a copy of our itinerary and there's nothing on here for tonight," she argued, gesturing at the paper.

Sighing sadly, Camila said nothing. She simply continued down the hallway until she was met with a door number that matched her room key. The Miami native quickly slipped her card out of its paper casing and swiped it through the door, the satisfying green light appeared and she opened the door wide, politely gesturing for Lauren to enter.

The older girl rolled her eyes and huffed, she stomped through the doorway and set down their overnight bags on the far bed, knowing that they would end up sharing one queen anyway.

Camila shut the door behind her and was met with unimpressed yet stunning green eyes and the cross armed combative stance of her girlfriend.

"I need you to talk to me, Camz. I don't understand what's going on or why you're acting like this," Lauren begged. She could see the stress and restlessness swirling in the younger girl's chocolate orbs and wished for nothing more than a chance to ease some of the turmoil her girlfriend was clearly experiencing.

"Nothing is 'going on' Lauren I just can't go swimming with you tonight. Please, just drop this?" the younger girl begged, her hands beginning to shake with anxiety.

"If nothing is going on then why can't you just tell me what it is you're doing tonight," Lauren countered.

"Just because we're dating doesn't mean that I have to tell you everything I do all the time," Camila retorted, hoping to change the focus of the argument.

Unfortunately for her, Lauren could see exactly what she was trying to do and didn't allow herself to get distracted from her main point. "I'm not asking you to tell me 'everything you do all the time' I'm asking you to tell me where you're going tonight. I don't want you to get hurt."

Camila's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Did Lauren know more than she was letting on? Was this entire conversation just a trap to get Camila to confirm her suspicions. "W-what are you talking about? What makes you think I would get hurt."

Sensing that she may have hit a somewhat close to her mark, the older girl continued "You think I haven't noticed that you're limping? Or that there's clearly something wrong with you because your posture is different and you keep hugging yourself? Something is going on with you Camz, please just tell me," she begged.

Tears immediately swam into the smaller girl's brown eyes as she desperately tried to blink them back. Biting her lip to keep them back, Camila shook her head and subconsciously returned her right arm to her torso.

"Are you sick?" Lauren guessed, "I know you don't like having to be taken care of but you know how easy it is to catch something when we're on the road. Please just tell me."

Before Camila could formulate a response to Lauren's guess or think of something else to throw the taller girl off her trail, the loud ring of her cell phone destroyed their intense moment. Without taking her eyes off of Lauren, the younger Cuban reached around with her other arm and extracted the phone from her pocket. Not even bothering to check the caller id, she answered.

"Yes?"

Lauren could hear a vaguely irritated voice boom from the other end of the room but not loudly enough for her to make out exactly what the man was saying. She watched intently as Camila's shoulders seemed to slump at whatever the voice was saying; she broke their eye contact and pulled her arm a little tighter around herself.

"I'll be right there," she answered, despondently and hung up the phone.

The older girl let out a huff of annoyance, as she predicted the goodbye she was about to receive.

"I hav-," she began

"You have to go, yeah I figured," Lauren snapped, irritated by the interruption when she felt she was just about to reach some sort of breakthrough with her girlfriend.

"Lauren please," Camila begged, unable to handle fighting with Lauren in addition to everything else.

"Please what Camila? Act like I don't mind that you're hiding something from me?" she scoffed, "what is the point of being in a relationship if you don't trust me? Have I done something to make you believe that you can't?"

"So now you care?" Camila bristled, her voice shaking. "What's different now as opposed to the past few weeks? It didn't seem to bother you to overlook issues in our relationship then."

Furious with mostly herself and somewhat her girlfriend's closed off behavior, she ran a hand roughly through her hair and threw her bag violently across the room and watched it hit the wall with a disruptive thump. "Goddamnit Camila! You're being impossible right now!" She shouted.

Seeing the way her girlfriend's lip began to tremble at the harsh confrontation, Lauren forced herself to calm down and try a different approach. She held her hands up in surrender and cautiously stepped closer to her clearly frightened girlfriend.

"I know I haven't been the most available lately and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I haven't been there for you and prioritized you the way I know you prioritize me. That stops now because you mean absolutely everything to me Camz."

Not giving Camila a chance to respond, Lauren closed the distance between them and carefully placed her hands on either side of the younger girl's face. She leaned in and captured her lips with her own, effectively ending her rebuttal.

Camila had missed the physical part of their relationship just as much as Lauren had, if not more. The smaller girl reacted immediately, latching her arms around her girlfriend's waist and probing her mouth with her tongue. Enticed by her girlfriend's willingness, Lauren immediately granted the younger girl access as they both fought for dominance.

"I missed you so much," Lauren said, breathless.

Camila just moaned softly, reattaching their lips with a new eagerness. Until the pressing need for air appears once again, they both enjoyed their passionate kiss after lacking intimacy. As soon as they broke apart for air, Camila's lips moved to her throat, leaving tender kisses in her wake and soon after her fingers slipped underneath Lauren's flannel as she caressed the pale girl's abs.

Just as Lauren was about to make a move to shed both herself and her girlfriend of their unnecessary shirts, their moment was once again interrupted by the shrill ring of Camila's cell phone. 

"Ignore it," Lauren murmured against Camila's red lips, moving to trap her girlfriend in an embrace. Camila grimaced at the motion and quickly slipped out of her reach, in one swift move she answered the call and mouthed an apology at an irritated Lauren.

This time the raven haired girl was positive she heard shouting from the other end of the phone but was still unable to make out exactly what was being said. The effect on Camila was immediate, Lauren noticed; gone was the blush on her cheeks and lively sparkle she'd had just moments ago. Her shoulders slumped forward and anxiety danced behind her eyes. 

"I understand, I'm leaving now," she responded, her voice betraying nothing. Lauren was almost frightened by how quickly Camila shut off her emotions for the second time today.

After she ended the call, the younger girl unwillingly looked up to meet Lauren's controlled expression; the only real giveaway as to how she was really feeling was the anger hidden in her eyes.

"Who keeps calling you," Lauren demanded, crossing her arms, which now felt empty with Camila so far away. Peering around her, she saw the end flash of the name on her girlfriend's cell phone.

"Is it Jason? Is that who's demanding to see you?" she continued to question

"I have to go," Camila said softly.

"That's not an answer Camila," Lauren responded through gritted teeth.

"I know, I'm sorry. I promise I'll explain tonight if you're still awake," Camila vowed. She quickly turned around, picked up a gym bag from the bed that Lauren hadn't even noticed she'd brought and kissed the older girl's cheek.

"Please just tell me what's going on," Lauren begged one final time, catching Camila's wrist.

The younger girl offered her a small smile "Tonight," she promised.

And all Lauren could do was let her go. 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The quiet shutting of, presumably, the bathroom door and the slight dip of the bed jostled Lauren awake from her slumber.

"Camz?" She questioned groggily

"Shhh go back to sleep baby," Camila soothed, her voice still trembling. Immediately sensing something was wrong Lauren pushed herself up on her elbows, suddenly more alert. She glanced at the clock to see it was just after 2 am.

"Are you just now coming back?" Lauren hissed, furious with how inconsiderate Jason was of Camila's need for sleep.

Shaking her head in the hopes of appeasing her girlfriend she replied "Not exactly, I got back about 20 minutes ago. I needed a shower." As hard as she tried to steady her voice, Camila couldn't contain her body's shakes from the stress that hovering above Lauren in bed was causing, which in turn caused her voice to sound pained.

Frustrated with her inability to get a good read on her girlfriend in her sleepy state and under the cloak of darkness, the taller girl reached for a bedside light before Camila had a chance to protest. Lauren pulled the chord and temporarily blinded them both as light poured in. Both girls tightly shut their eyes to lessen the harshness but Lauren recovered first and gasped.

Camila's hair was still damp and fell in freshly brushed waves around her face. Her jaw was clearly swollen, a harsh angry redish purple bruise covered from the back of her jaw all the way to her chin. Light gashes appeared on the small girl's forehead, scarily close to her eyes. Lauren allowed her shocked eyes to wander down to the hand-shaped bruises visible around her girlfriend's wrists and the splotches of red that she was able to see. Camila had dressed in an oversized dark maroon t-shirt and pair of soft black sweatpants, restricting Lauren's view to only her arms and face. The older girl couldn't bear the thought of what her girlfriend was hiding beneath her clothes. The most heart wrenching sight was Camila's eyes. Her usually spirited, warm, stunning golden brown eyes were almost black, void of any emotion; it was clear that tonight had taken an intense mental and emotional toll as well.

The Cuban's eyes trailed back up to find Camila's body vibrating so intensely that it shook the entire bed. Her arms had crossed themselves protectively across her chest and her eyes were downcast, tears dripping onto the comforter and shame rolling off of her like waves.

"Camila," Lauren choked out.

"Don't," the younger girl gritted out, clearly fighting an internal battle to keep her composure.

Lauren, fully awake now, shuffled closer to her girlfriend. She reached over and lightly touched the non-injured side of her face and gently ran her thumb across the smooth skin.

"Please Camila? Just trust me."

And just like that, the dam burst.

Harsh sobs escaped the young girl's mouth and tears started flooding out at an alarming rate. Her breaths became more and more shallow as she pulled her legs up into her chest, which only seemed to cause her more pain.

Unable to stand the sight of her girlfriend so broken, Lauren put aside her desperate need for answers and sat up quickly against the headboard of the bed. She reached out and gently picked up her slim girlfriend and as carefully as possible, she lowered her snugly between her legs. The green eyed girl felt tears prickle into her own eyes at seeing Camila in such a state but she couldn't break down now, not when Camila had been suffering through this alone. Careful not to upset injuries Lauren was sure existed but was unable to access, she tried to comfort the younger girl as gently as possible by wrapping her arms loosely around her waist.

"It's a-all my fault," The brunette sobbed, more ruthless sobs surged through her body with every word.

"Shhh Camz, it's okay. Everything's okay," Lauren soothed. Her need for answers continued to grow more urgent but she bit her cheek so hard she swore she tasted copper. Clearly speaking was costing Camila more than she could give at the moment and she would just have to wait until the singer had calmed down enough to beg her for answers.

For the next 15 minutes they sat just like that, Camila pressing herself into Lauren's body as if it would save her from everything in the world and Lauren clutching her as tightly as she could without further aggravating the still anonymous injuries.


	2. Chapter 2

Although her heart was absolutely shattering for the fragile girl in her arms, Lauren maintained her composure all throughout the next hour, gently shushing her girlfriend when her sobs became too violent and the raven haired girl was actually terrified that she would further harm herself or aggravate her injuries.

"Camz?" she whispered softly, "I know you're hurting right now and it's breaking my heart to see you like this. I need you to talk to me."

Her request was met with violent whimpers and harsh tremors surging through the younger girl's body.

"Please Camila," she begged, her own bright green eyes shining with tears. "I want to help you more than anything but you have to let me."

When she was met with more silence, Lauren let out a frustrated and grim sigh; she moved her arm away from her girlfriend's hair, which she had been stroking in what she hoped, was a calming fashion, down to her hip absently.

Camila let out an involuntary yelp of pain and flinch violently into a sitting position. The raven haired girl was able to get a glimpse of her girlfriend's eyes for the first time since she'd broken down and sucked in a harsh breath at how empty they looked, aside from the tears.

"What happened?" Lauren asked, panicked. "What hurts?"

Camila just shook her head, edging away from Lauren on the bed, as if she were deliberately trying to create distance between them.

"N-nothing you just really startled me and I'm s-still sore," the brown eyed girl stuttered, determined not to drag Lauren into her mess any more than she already had.

"We have to be up soon, go back to sleep. I want to be alone," she continued, her eyes downcast because she knew if she met her girlfriend's striking green gaze, she'd come undone again.

Lauren shook her head and advanced slowly towards the smaller girl, "I'm not letting you push me away Camila, not again."

Brown eyes snapped back up, a new fire present in them. "Is that what this is? You feel guilty about the fact that I've been practically dead to you for 2 weeks and now you feel responsible for this?" She challenged.

In hindsight, Camila acknowledges that she was in a lot of pain and all of the moving around she was doing exacerbated it. Saying that Lauren had been treating her as if she were "dead to her" may have been somewhat (or extremely) dramatic but she wasn't about to admit that now.

Bewildered, Lauren immediately crawled over to the younger girl and pried her hands away from the comforter she was currently knotting and captured them in her own.

"This is not about guilt Camz, this is about the fact that something is seriously wrong with you and I've clearly done something to make you feel like you can't come to about it and I don't understand," she released one of Camila's hands so she could lift the girl's chin up, forcing her to look into her eyes. "But I want to. I need to. And I need you to start talking to me because I've been your best friend for years now and I don't know when or why that stopped but I want that back."  
Tears that the Latina had been determined to fight back leaked out of her eyes at Lauren's raspy declaration. She wanted to tell her that it wasn't her fault, that there was a monster in her head that just wouldn't allow Camila to reach out to anyone, not even the person who mattered to her the most.

"Things are that simple anymore Laur," she shook her head sadly.

Lauren opened her mouth to refute her girlfriend's statement but was cut off by the gentle shake of her girlfriend's head.

"I don't want to fight," she said quietly, "but I can't talk about this anymore tonight."

Lauren wanted to put up a fight; she wanted to argue that Camila was hurt, physically and clearly emotionally and that she probably should get checked out by a doctor or at least a nurse or something. But the older girl was so scared that she would push Camila too far and the girl would break up with her. She couldn't stand the thought of not being with her girlfriend, not being there for her or kissing her lips or brushing her hair and just staring into her warm brown eyes. So she visibly slumped and nodded so slowly Camila almost thought she was falling asleep sitting up.

"I don't like this," she said softly. "But I understand. I'm not going to push you any more tonight but I can't promise you anything when the sun comes up."

Camila gave her girlfriend's hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it; her shoulders slumped forward with relief at the older girl's concession.

The green eye girl's patience was rewarded with a gentle set of lips pressed on her cheek. It was a sweet gesture, one that reminded Lauren of the most primitive and innocent times in their relationship. There were no more words that could be said, and with that both girls turned away and waited for sleep that Camila knew would not come easily.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bright rays of sunlight flashed directly over Lauren's eyes, waking her up in the worst of ways. It would be just her luck. With a sigh, she turned over on her side, expecting to be face to face with girlfriend but was surprised to find her gone. The raven haired girl sat up suddenly and anxiously glanced around the room as if it would give her some kind of clue as to where Camila had gone. Her eyes flickered to the nightstand next to the younger girl's side of the bed and she found a neatly folded note with her name scrawled over it.

Lauren,

I didn't want to wake you, you looked too peaceful and I know it's impossible to get good sleep on tour so I figured you deserved it. I had somewhere to be this morning but I'll meet up with you and the girls for lunch or something.

C

Lauren visibly deflated; she wouldn't be surprised if Camila didn't actually have to be anywhere and just wanted to avoid continuing their confrontation at all costs. Or worse, what if Camila was doing the same thing that got her hurt? She knew from her band mates that her girlfriend had been spending extra time with their choreographer per his request and that was where Camila said she was last night. The only thing that had changed between the brunette acting weird and the brunette she'd come to know and love was these "sessions" with Jason.

The raven haired girl wasn't stupid. Whatever was going on, Jason clearly had something to do with it. He was an extremely talented choreographer, almost to the point of obsession with perfection and now that Lauren was thinking back on it, he had always been a little more intense than what is considered normal. Her mind was jumping to the worst case scenario so before it could wander any further, she slipped out of bed, entered the bathroom, showered and got ready as quickly as she could.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Again!" Jason shouted his anger prevalent.

Camila stood across the room practically doubled over and clinging to the dance bar for support. The only way she was even standing right now was the amount of vicodin she'd taken this morning allowed her to temporarily forget that her ribs were on fire and her ankle was still sprained or rolled, she wasn't sure. The young singer had managed to procure bandage-like material to wrap her ribs to keep them from jostling but it was nearly impossible to do it herself, her ribcage simply wouldn't allow for that kind of movement at the moment so she'd done an, admittedly, terrible job wrapping them on her own.

Gritting her teeth with determination, the Latina straightened her back and took her first position in the dance. Of course she wanted to yell back, to tell Jason maybe the reason she was dancing terribly was because she was injured and exhausted or maybe because she could barely see straight and the only reason she was standing was because she was so high on pain medication she couldn't feel the extent of her injuries. But that wasn't and would never be an option. If Camila had learned anything from her "private" lessons, it was that the only thing that made Jason angrier than failure was talking back. What was she to do? Get their choreographer fired? The first time she'd threatened to expose his abusive ways to management or the other girls, he'd laughed in her face. "Fifth Harmony has won countless awards, including AMAs, VMAs, teen choice awards and so many more, largely in part because of my choreography. Are you really that selfish? That you'd destroy the success of your band mates because you can't handle keeping up with them?" he'd said. It had fractured the chocolate eyed girl's confidence in ways she never thought possible but he was right. Clearly the formula that she and the girls had right now was working, how could she possibly be responsible for ruining that?

His words had wrapped around Camila's brain like a vine and she genuinely believed the lies and insults he'd planted in her brain. Her deteriorating relationship with Lauren was something he'd obviously noticed during rehearsal and preyed on, insisting that her girlfriend was probably tired of her screwing things up all the time and maybe if she were a more talented performer, she wouldn't need to work so hard to keep her girlfriend's attention.

Snapping herself out of the memory, Camila refocused on keeping her steps in time to the music and mentally pictured Dinah, Ally and Normani dancing around her with Lauren on the other side of the stage as if it were a real performance. She danced her part of the routine for Work From Home the best she could considering it didn't feel right to place all of her weight on her left ankle, regardless of how much pain medication she took. When the music stopped she was out of breath but looked over at the man for approval. He looked furious as he stomped across the small studio and towards the small girl.

"Are you fucking serious?" He demanded, grinding his teeth angrily. "You look ridiculous when you do that Camila how many times do I need to tell you? Distribute. Your. Weight. Equally!"

With that he reached out and shoved the girl harshly against the dance bar, hard enough that Camila was sure there'd be at least a light bruise to show for it.

"I don't even know why I bother sometimes," he grumbled. He ran a hand through his thinning hair and smacked his hand against the wall in frustration.

Camila's body was trembling with definitely fear and exhaustion but also relief maybe? If all she got was a shove into the dance bar it was a good day.

Jason stomped back over to the music, presumably to set the song up for her to go again so she pushed herself off of the bar and stood on her mark.

"Okay now this time try not to fuck up so much. I want just one good performance out of you To-" his verbose shouting was cut off by the creek of the door opening slowly.

"This is a closed-"This time he stopped himself as he saw Lauren's green eyes pierce into his from across the room.

"Lauren," he said, surprised. "What are you doing down here?"

The Miami native raised her eyebrows challengingly "Looking for you actually, I was wondering if you could explain why you kept my girlfriend so late last night and why she came back to our room looking like hell?"

Camila's face immediately went ashen and Lauren's gaze fell on her for the first time since she entered the small studio; her eyes softened as she studied the younger girl. She looked absolutely exhausted; her weight continued to rest on her good ankle and her eyes were glassy and unfocused. She'd put skin-colored Band-Aids over the cuts on her face that from a distance almost allowed them to blend in. The bruises had turned a darker shade of magenta today, as Lauren had assumed they would. And if the yelling she'd heard as she got closer to the studio door from the lobby was anything to go by, the older man was definitely at fault for her girlfriend's condition.

Jason's eyebrows furrowed in confusion "What are you talking about? Camila and I do an extra session every now and then but I let her go early last night and she was perfectly fine when she left here. Right Mila?"

It was clear by the fire burning behind the choreographer's eyes that her life was about to get exponentially worse if she'd didn't corroborate his story so the girl nodded in agreement.

"I don't believe you," Lauren disputed. Jason opened his mouth to argue but the singer cut him off again. "And even if that's true, why the fuck would you make her, or even let her, practice when a blind man could see that she was injured yesterday before she left our room to go to rehearsal with you?"

"Just what exactly are you trying to say, Lauren?" Jason asked, his eyes frosting over. It was clear that the girl was not backing down.

"I don't know Jason, what am I supposed to think?" she shot back.

"Why don't you ask Camila? If she's lying to you or keeping secrets about where she is that's not my business but I can promise you that most of the time, she not with me."

Both sets of eyes turned to rest on the smallest girl, who strongly resembled a deer in the headlights. Her chocolate orbs were darting between the girl she loved and the man she feared. She felt like someone had dumped scalding water inside her throat and she was unable to talk.

"Camz?" Lauren prompted, taking a few steps in her direction.

"I wasn't with him," she choked out. A proud and sinister smile crept over Jason's face as he nodded to himself.

"I should get going. That last set of moves needs work, Camila. Let me know when you get permission to rehearse again," he drawled sarcastically. "I'll be in touch."

Lauren's hands were shaking with anger. This interaction had done nothing but confirm her theory that Jason was involved in whatever was going on with Camila. As sure as the raven haired girl was that she'd worked out what was happening, she couldn't figure out why the hell Camila would let it. All the signs led to Jason, for whatever reason, hated Camila and was most definitely abusing her during these "sessions" which explained her injuries and exhaustion. But what didn't make sense was, why would Camila lie to protect him? Why would her girlfriend keep putting herself through this? Was he threatening her?

The younger girl opened her mouth to explain but Lauren shook her head and held out of her hand as if to say 'stop.'

"Don't lie to me," she said, deadly serious. "Whatever was about to come out of your mouth was not the truth and I don't think I can handle any more of this bullshit. I know you Camila. I know when you're lying and I need you to be honest with me right now."

Camila's eyes filled with tears once again. How was she supposed to tell Lauren that the truth was, she was the weak link of fifth harmony and she would put up with being Jason's personal punching bag all day every day if it meant success for the group. 

If it meant Lauren being proud of her.

If it meant the girls loving her and wanting to spend time with her.

She'd just managed to fix her relationship with everyone about 3 or 4 months ago after her distant behavior and she just wanted things to stay good for a while.

The smaller girl just shook her head, streams pouring down her cheeks.

"You don't understand," she trembled.

Lauren closed the gap between herself and her girlfriend grasped her hands between her own. "So make me understand. Explain it to me. Why do you keep putting yourself through this?"

"I thought I c-couldn't tell anyone," she sobbed, hiding her face in the flannel coating Lauren's shoulders.

"Shhh," the Cuban soothed. "Why didn't you want anyone to know? We would've fired Jason in a heartbeat."

"That's the p-problem," she sniffled. "I can't be the r-reason Fifth Harmony f-falls apart."

"What?" Lauren questioned, bewildered. "What do you mean?"

"Jason has choreographed our d-dance moves for years and we've w-won so many awards," she cried. "If he gets fired that stops and everyone will h-hate me and you'll leave."

"Oh Camz," Lauren's heart shattered for the broken girl in her arms. "You can't possibly believe that that's true?"

She was met with silence.

"Camila listen to me," she forced the younger girl to meet her eyes by gently tilting her chin up. "Fifth Harmony is successful because we're 5 talented singers who love music and each other and the fans. People don't come to our concerts to watch us dance, they come to hear us sing and you're amazing at that. You're not even a bad dancer! That's the most ridiculous part of all of this. You're not perfect but guess what? Neither am I. I forget the moves to songs all the time and 98% of the time, no one notices and the true fans don't care."

Camila was at a loss for words. She wanted to believe Lauren's words and in time, maybe she could. She suddenly felt like a fool for not coming to her girlfriend with this earlier. Maybe she could've helped rationalize and saved herself and the girl holding her a lot of pain.

"Here's what happens now," The older girl murmured gently in her ear. "You and I are going to go talk to management. We're going to tell them what's been going on together and then Jason is going to get fired, you will take several days to rest – however many the doctor recommends- and then management with hire a new choreographer and Fifth Harmony will continue to be a success because you're amazing and the fans love you and I love you. Okay?"

She smiled, "Okay."

And with that the two girls left the hotel dance studio, hand in hand, and for the first time in months, Camila felt safe and happy and loved. Maybe there was hope for her yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's the next installment. I was thinking about making this a three shot to kind of explain some things I brought up in this chapter (i.e. the Vicodin usage) but didn't really get into detail with. Plus it wouldn't kill them to talk about how they let this situation affect their romantic relationship. BUT if you guys think this is a good place to stop maybe I'll leave it as a two shot? Idk let me know what you think!
> 
> I have a couple of other stories I've been working on- Camren of course- because Lauren coming out basically confirms Camren (if not now then at some point it was most definitely real)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi this might be a one shot unless people want me to continue?? I write more on wattpad and you can find the story on there under my account 
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/302050275-echoes-off-the-walls-chapter-1


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